I was having breakfast in a cafeteria when a Buddhist monk joined me.

The food wasn’t great, so we joked about the soupy oatmeal and burned toast.

Then he turned to me in seriousness and said:

When you stop laughing, that’s when the trouble begins.

I love his advice and he’s right:

A troubled mind causes trouble, not what the mind thinks it’s troubled about.

If a situation is serious and doesn’t seem to have a lighter side, you can at least stay calm and work the problem.

A negative mind, on the other hand, will get you in trouble every time.

photo by Wouter de Jong